The present invention relates generally to vehicle information systems, and particularly to vehicle information systems providing event information to vehicles traveling a given route.
A variety of traffic related information is now available for use in aiding vehicle operation; especially in urban road networks with potential for congestion and significant traffic jams affecting travel time. For example, some cities now have traffic speed sensing devices collecting traffic flow rates along given sections of roadways traveled heavily by commuter traffic. Such information can be collected and voice broadcast by AM and FM conventional radio stations in the form of verbal traffic reports, e.g., the morning traffic report, to inform commuters of potential slowdowns, and thereby provide commuter opportunity to select an alternate travel route. Other examples of traffic event information are traffic jams, vehicle wrecks affecting traffic flow, closure of particular routes, and construction activity affecting traffic flow. Any such information of interest to drivers shall be referred to herein as xe2x80x9ctraffic eventsxe2x80x9d and may be considered generally anything of interest to the traveler along a given route.
An information device likely to be soon commonly incorporated into vehicles is a position detecting system, e.g., the well known global positioning system (GPS) provided by satellite broadcast to determine location of a GPS device within a given number of meters. Vehicles with GPS capability will have the very useful feature of tracking position along a given route as represented by a digital map database and displaying traffic events along the current vehicle route. The general assumption has been that each vehicle will carry a massive database of road networks, i.e., digital maps, as a reference mechanism in presenting traffic event information to the vehicle driver. For example, the digital map shows graphically collected traffic event information as a display for the vehicle driver.
Reference to a digital map also supports filtering of most traffic event information, i.e., excluding from display traffic event information not relevant to the current travel route, current position, or intended route.
Massive digital map databases are, however, inherently expensive and difficult to include in mass produced products such as would be appropriate in a GPS-capable car radio consumer product. Digital map databases require license fees, large amounts of memory, frequent and expensive revision, and generally cannot be comprehensive enough to allow use throughout the entire world. It is not economically feasible to provide in an inexpensive consumer product a digital map database covering the entire world, or at least a significant geographic region. If the device is prepared for use throughout the world, an incredibly massive digital map is required with significant cost and maintenance requirements. If only selected geographic regions are incorporated into the digital map, the device cannot be used outside such geographic regions without post-manufacture modification or manipulation of numerous storage devices, e.g., a library of CD-ROM discs.
Vehicle information devices desirably include a digital map for filtering the massive volume of traffic event information. The larger and more comprehensive the map, the better suited the device is for use in any given area. A practical constraint exists, however, for consumer products in a price range suitable for common use in vehicles, i.e., a vehicle GPS-radio.
It would be desirable, therefore, for a vehicle information device to be usable in any geographic area as manufactured yet still maintain an ability to filter, i.e., exclude from display, irrelevant traffic event information relative to a current travel route. In particular, it would be desirable to avoid a requirement of procuring and maintaining a massive digital database in the traffic information device, yet maintain an ability to reference a selected travel route and thereby filter irrelevant traffic event information. The subject matter of the present invention provides such a vehicle travel information device.
In accordance with the present invention, a traffic information device in a vehicle includes a vehicle position detecting device and collects vehicle position information while travelling along a given travel route. The device thereby learns travel routes and stores a collection frequently travelled routes. After a given travel route is so defined and stored, the device references the stored travel route to filter the massive volume of traffic event information available and thereby display only those traffic event items relevant to the selected travel route.
The subject matter of the present invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of this specification. However, both the organization and method of operation of the invention, together with further advantages and objects thereof, may be best understood by reference to the following description taken with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to like elements.